23 December 2023 , 17:06
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A baker dubbed "confectioner to the rich and powerful" has created the world's most expensive gingerbread house, valued at a staggering £6.3 million.
Debbie Wingham, 41, from Doncaster, South Yorkshire spent two weeks crafting the Dolce and Gabbana-inspired metre-tall delicacy for a client's marriage proposal. The house's pièce de résistance is the loose pink diamond worth £3.1 million – accompanied by three other individual pink diamonds, each worth £1 million – which stands as its centrepiece. Ginger cookies provide the structure of the house, with icing sugar, chocolate, sprinkles, and fondant used for the decorations.
Ms Wingham even perfected edible mannequins out of rice paper to make the house resemble the iconic Dolce and Gabbana store in Puerto Banus, Spain.
The former fashion designer and mum-of-three has a dazzling portfolio, having made life-sized edible versions of celebrities including Kim Kardashian and Ru Paul in the past. She only began baking professionally in 2015, but by 2018 was attracting international headlines for a six-foot-tall, million-dollar wedding cake unveiled at Dubai's World Trade Centre as part of its BRIDE showcase.
She said: "I have made sugar art pieces for many clients from royals to celebrities and for occasions from bar mitzvah to weddings and big corporate brand launches, but this was my first proposal confection. I'm delighted that my client is now going into the new year with a fiance."
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Debbie Wingham began her career as a fashion designer but soon became a food artist (Debbie Wingham / SWNS)
The house contains edible rice paper clothes inside (Debbie Wingham / SWNS)But Ms Wingham admits she was a little fazed at times by the task at hand, and was anxious about the proposal going as planned. "It is always rewarding when you deliver a creation but this one had high stakes as it was a proposal confection.
"I don't think I have ever been so nervous. Normally I worry about the transit of the sugar creations but this time I was thinking, 'I hope she says yes'.
"A confection with massive responsibility, I was delighted when they notified me she said yes." The happy couple are now designing a ring and matching earrings using the diamonds, and plan to reveal the ring to friends and family at their engagement party on New Years' Eve.